LIVE EVENTS

Another great event has come and gone at Playground. The partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America left in its wake a trail of memories that many will cherish for the rest of their lives. The festival, although nicely highlighted by the presence of many international pros, was taken over by local players, who took down 7 of the 11 titles, including the Main Event, to reinforce Quebec’s reputation of breeding strong poker players. A total of $8,517,161 was paid out through 11 events. All tournaments met the guarantee and offered some amazing prizes. A resounding success! The $10,000 + $300 Main Event was strongly contested. The final 8 counted three locals, but after Ruben Perceval’s elimination in 8th place, only two were left for Day 5: Danick Landriault and François Billard. Alongside them were Rabichow, Fontan, Petteri, and Kolonias, all very strong players. François Billard was …

The event #12 final table was a cinch for Arthur W.  He was hitting everything and could not seem to go wrong.  He eliminated most of the players on the final table, which is a good thing in a bounty tournament for sure. The heads-up action lasted only a few hands.  Both Andy d’Alessandro and Arthur were definitely not afraid to gamble.  Andy did manage to pick up a few hands, but it was not enough. Peeking at an acceptable hand, Andy made his move and Arthur did not hesitate long before calling. Andy: Arthur: Board: Andy got his straight, but unfortunately for him Arthur hit a flush and that put an end to it all.  The hand, the heads-up, the tournament, and, the MILLIONS North America Event were over. Congratulations to all the winners! Event #12 Champion: Arthur W, $4,254 Last Hand of Play: …

The $10,300 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America is in the books! Another great event goes down in history at Playground. After five long days of poker, François Billard emerged the victor and cashes $961,400 ($749,030 were secured from the ICM deal, plus $212,370 for the win). The final table was reached on Day 4, and the action went on until only six were left. These six players came back at 12:00PM today for the final battle, all vying for the massive $1,000,000 first prize. Francois Billard, Joni Petteri Jouhkimainen, Kevin Rabichow, Castrillon Fontan, Alexandros Kolonias, and Danick Landriault were rounding the Stream table, pumped up for the action. Danick Landriault was the first to leave, and play continued 5-way for over 6 hours before Day 5 saw another elimination. During that time, many showdowns favoured the shorter stack, and many players took turns on the …

The cards were in the air at 11:00am with players starting with a 30,000 chip stack playing on six-handed tables through 30 minute blind levels. There were single re-entries available until the close of late registration and with 114 total entries (including 11 re-entries), the $50,000 guaranteed prize pool was surpassed, creating an up top first place payout of $13,260. The action was aggressive and the lead changed many times throughout the day. First it was local regular Yannick Labattaglia who was in the lead, and then later on local Mehdi Badreddine, but neither of them made it into the money. Once the money bubble burst, the bustouts happened rapidly and soon the final table was formed. When the tournament was down to only five players, an ICM deal was reached as all players were quite evenly stacked save for one, local Mark Fitzpatrick, who …

After an epic battle that lasted for hours, Lily Kornik is the champion of Event #7, the Playground 1000. The Playground 1000 brought out an impressive field of 260 entries. The huge field built a prize pool that went far beyond the $100,000 guarantee and created a top prize of $55,430 for the eventual champion. Ali Keshavarz was the Day 1 chip leader. A total of 82 players bagged chips for Day 2. The chip leader from this flight, Lily Kornik – better known to Playground regulars as “Big Salami” – kept up her strong Day 1 play and jumped out to an early chip lead. Although some other players had their turn as chip leader during Day 2, Kornik was never far off the lead. After the players reached the money, Kornik jumped back up to the top of the leaderboard and stayed there …

The $10,300 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America is in the books! Another great event goes down in history at Playground. After five long days of poker, François Billard emerged the victor and cashes $961,400 ($749,030 were secured from the ICM deal, plus $212,370 for the win). The final table was reached on Day 4, and the action went on until only six were left. These six players came back at 12:00PM today for the final battle, all vying for the massive $1,000,000 first prize. Francois Billard, Joni Petteri Jouhkimainen, Kevin Rabichow, Castrillon Fontan, Alexandros Kolonias, and Danick Landriault were rounding the Stream table, pumped up for the action. Danick Landriault was the first to leave, and play continued 5-way for over 6 hours before Day 5 saw another elimination. During that time, many showdowns favoured the shorter stack, and many players took turns on the …

Joni Jouhkimainen had a bit of a rough time playing 3-way after the chop. He fought hard against the two bigger stacks, but in the end fell when his pre-flop all-in was called by François Billard in the big blind. Jouhkimainen: Billard: Board: Billard faded a lot of cards on the river, and shows up to the duel with a pretty good lead: François Billard – 378,500,000 Kevin Rabichow – 142,500,000 Let the duel begin! The 2 finalists are now playing head to head for $212K and the trophy!

One more level has gone by; players are taking another break. Our 3 finalists display tremendous patience, and every pot is hardly fought, in terms of analysis. Even after 12 hours of play, they are still taking their time, crunching numbers, eye-balling each other. True professionals. Levels have now been reduced to one hour in length. Update:

Since play resumed after the rearrangement of the prizes, Kevin Raduchow, after losing a bit of chips, managed to double against François Billard. Billard, however, came back strong and bought a few pots to bring him back to about 220M. In one hand, for example, he was seen check raising the river on a board from 12M to 44M after the turned was checked by both. Joni Jouhkimainen is having a tough time keeping up with the larger stacks. He now sits with about 110M, while Raduchow works with 200M.  

When our 3 finalists came back from their 40-minute break, they started feeling each other’s interest in discussing a rearrangement of the prizes. The discussions were quite lengthy, understandably. After all, these are pretty substantial amounts. Here are the allotted prize: This leaves $212,370 up top for the winner of what has turned into a winner-take-all event. And of course, the eventual winner will go home with the amazing MILLIONS trophy and the solid bragging rights that come with it. Play resumes now!

After an epic battle that lasted for hours, Lily Kornik is the champion of Event #7, the Playground 1000. The Playground 1000 brought out an impressive field of 260 entries. The huge field built a prize pool that went far beyond the $100,000 guarantee and created a top prize of $55,430 for the eventual champion. Ali Keshavarz was the Day 1 chip leader. A total of 82 players bagged chips for Day 2. The chip leader from this flight, Lily Kornik – better known to Playground regulars as “Big Salami” – kept up her strong Day 1 play and jumped out to an early chip lead. Although some other players had their turn as chip leader during Day 2, Kornik was never far off the lead. After the players reached the money, Kornik jumped back up to the top of the leaderboard and stayed there …

Cossette moved all-in with a!nd Kornik made the call with . The flop was , giving Cossette a set. The turn was the and the river was . Lily Kornik just said “I can’t win a $%^&#@ flip”

On flop, The Big Salami (Kornik) moved all-in. Cossette used 2 time extension cards before making the call. Kornik:      Cossette:  Kornik had flopped two pair for the win (the on the turn and on river were not of any consequence). Cossette told us that “she’s so tight, even though we are heads-up I wasn’t sure if I should be calling or not?”.  

The ping pong ball has literally been going back and forth for the entire level. First Cossette wins an all-in, and then Kornik wins one, and chips just keep moving across the felt. Cossette moved all-in with and Kornik called with . The board run out was and Cossette takes the lead

The battle going on is like a ping pong match, as the chips keep moving back and forth across the felt. Cossette moved all-in and Kornink had picked up a pair and made the call. Cossette: Kornik:      Lily was behind and needed to catch a 9 to win the hand and the tournament…but the on the turn and on the river did not deliver what she was hoping for, and chips moved across the table to Cossette.  

The cards were in the air at 11:00am with players starting with a 30,000 chip stack playing on six-handed tables through 30 minute blind levels. There were single re-entries available until the close of late registration and with 114 total entries (including 11 re-entries), the $50,000 guaranteed prize pool was surpassed, creating an up top first place payout of $13,260. The action was aggressive and the lead changed many times throughout the day. First it was local regular Yannick Labattaglia who was in the lead, and then later on local Mehdi Badreddine, but neither of them made it into the money. Once the money bubble burst, the bustouts happened rapidly and soon the final table was formed. When the tournament was down to only five players, an ICM deal was reached as all players were quite evenly stacked save for one, local Mark Fitzpatrick, who …

The tournament is now heads up as it just lost Nicholas Soller, aka “Shooter McGavin”, as he is know on the cash tables at Playground. Nick is a solid grinder who has many final table appearances at Playground, including one last night. He tried his best this evening but in the end he got low on chips and put all of them in to the middle with , and he was called by Mark Fitzpatrick who had .  It started off looking good for Nick, but the flop came and Mark had flopped trip 9’s. The turn was the and river , sending Nick to the payout cage and leaving Mark Saddik and Mark Fitzpatrick heads-up, playing for $4,000. Third place, Nick Soller, $6,925  

Levon Dedeyan had lost some hands and was down to about 12 bigs when he decided to shove A7, only to be called by Marc Saddik holding QQ. Marc flopped an open end straight draw (9TJ) and Levon had a gut shot. The river was a brick and the table is now three handed. Fourth place, Levon Dedeyan, $7,140

It took over hour to have the first bustout since the players reached an ICM deal but finally, it happened. Action folded to Steve Joudry in the cutoff who opened the pot, and Steve was called by Mark Fitzpatrick on the button.  Both blinds folded. The flop came and both players got their money in. Steve: Mark: Steve had flopped a flush and Mark had an over pair with a Queen high flush draw. Turn: and Mark made his flush. The on river didn’t matter and Steve was sent to collect  his payout. Fifth place, Steve Joudry, $6,788

The players asked the tournament staff to pause the clock so that they can take a look at the ICM chip chop numbers. The staff have mentioned to the players that as per partypoke LIVE event policy, 10% of the remaining prize pool must be reserved for the first place winner (the tournament must still play down to a champion), therefore, there would be $4,000 left over for the first place champion in addition to the ICM payout. Here are the different stack sizes and corresponding ICM payouts: After a brief discussion, all five of the remaining players have agreed to go ahead with the deal as per the payouts on the the above table.

The event #12 final table was a cinch for Arthur W.  He was hitting everything and could not seem to go wrong.  He eliminated most of the players on the final table, which is a good thing in a bounty tournament for sure. The heads-up action lasted only a few hands.  Both Andy d’Alessandro and Arthur were definitely not afraid to gamble.  Andy did manage to pick up a few hands, but it was not enough. Peeking at an acceptable hand, Andy made his move and Arthur did not hesitate long before calling. Andy: Arthur: Board: Andy got his straight, but unfortunately for him Arthur hit a flush and that put an end to it all.  The hand, the heads-up, the tournament, and, the MILLIONS North America Event were over. Congratulations to all the winners! Event #12 Champion: Arthur W, $4,254 Last Hand of Play: …

Israel Pantaleon decided to go all in and hope for the best.  Unfortunately he ran into Arthur along the way… The board: Israel: – full, fours full of jacks Arthur: – full, jacks full of fours. So Arthur claims yet another victim and now the stage is set for the heads up action. Israel Pantaleon, 3rd place, $2,440

Ryan Nelson was pretty quiet in his seat #9 and seated right after “King” Arthur.  He was watching the action unfold with lightning speed and tried to pick a spot to double-up. This time, it was Andy D’Alessandro who was there to block his path.  Both men were all-in and revealed their hole cards. Ryan: Andy: The board: Both players picked up 2 pairs, but Andy’s kings & tens were better and sent Ryan to the rail in 4th place.   Ryan Nelson, 4th place, $1,940

Wassim Trabelsi fell to the mighty Arthur W when his all-in was called. Trabelsi:  Arthur: The board was revealed: Neither player connected with the board so Arthur’s ace-high was good enough to end Trabelsi’s journey. Wassim Trabelsi, 5th place, $1,480

Things were looking up for Arthur, who’s been doing very well on the final table.  With a lot of chips to play with, he did not hesitate to call a double all-in from Marc-André St-Pierre and Steven John Desjarlais. Board: Desjarlais: – pair of aces. St-Pierre: – pair of nines Arthur: – and he picks up a straight for the win.  This hand spells the end for both St-Pierre & Desjarlais.  Desjarlais had more chips so he finishes in 6th place.  St-Pierre settles for 7th place. Steven John Desjarlais, 6th place, $1,130   Marc-André St-Pierre, 7th place, $870